As a text adventure expert, I’ve recently become interested in MUDs again, especially from a historical perspective. There have been lots of works about multiplayer online games, including MUDs as early examples, but I believe little has been said so far about their history beyond the original MUD, nowadays usually called MUD1. Richard Bartle (one […]
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Archive: Dungeons, Dragons, Shovels, and Telepathy – A Brief Look at MUD Design
Many years ago, when I was discovering the post-commercial text adventure scene, one of the community’s most important publications was XYZZYnews, a magazine about all aspects of the “Interactive Fiction” culture, as it was starting to be called. I had been in contact with the editor, Eileen Mullin, since my game Ralph had been included […]
Continue ReadingA look at Mark Sheeky (English version)
After transfering all my articles from Medium to this website, a few over here still remain untranslated, among them one about Mark Sheeky. Considering how nice Mark was about the original article, including giving his permission to use some of his artworks and his photo, it’s the least I can do to finally provide a […]
Continue ReadingArchive: Why dates in retrogaming are problematic
This was the Vintrospektiv swan song on Medium, a reflection on my article series about the months in retrogaming. When I decided to end the multi-media aspects of Vintrospektiv and turn to more serious activities, I found it would be a good idea to add this analysis as the twelfth and final instalment of that […]
Continue ReadingArchive: The British gaming scene of the 80s
This was my first article specifically written for Medium in an attempt to find new channels for the results of my research. Since I’ve closed my account there, I’m moving the article to the Vintrospektiv homepage. The British scene The home computer and gaming scene of the 1980s in Great Britain was strikingly different from […]
Continue ReadingArchive: Infocom – The end of a genre (English version)
Continuing my moving of articles from Medium to the Vintrospektiv homepage, this English version of an article from 2021 first appeared over there in October 2021 (but has since been deleted). Infocom: The end of a genre The history of Infocom has been fully explored: from the founding in 1979 for the distribution of Dungeon, […]
Continue ReadingArchive: A Look at Cinemaware (English version)
This was one of my first articles on Vintrospektiv, originally in German since all of Vintrospektiv used to be in German in the beginning. This English version first appeared on Medium (in August 2021), but since I’m closing my account there I thought it would be a good idea to have everything here on Vintrospektiv. […]
Continue ReadingChristmas surprise video: Unboxing – City of Secrets
A few weeks ago, I stumbled upon a game box that was buried in a bookshelf. It turned out to be Emily Short’s City of Secrets, made in a tiny run and sold at the long-defunct feelies.org. I had originally ordered three copies back in 2002, two for friends to save on postage, but one […]
Continue ReadingNew article on Medium: Why dates in retrogaming are problematic
I have just published the concluding article for my series about the months in gaming history that launched Vintrospektiv back in December. I announced that I would be writing this in my farewell e-mail, and in a way it marks the final entry of Vintrospektiv as I originally envisioned it. (Update: The article has moved […]
Continue ReadingIn October
As the northern hemisphere starts preparing for Winter, we’ll take a look at what happened in October in the history of video games. There were many events to remember, as usual a mixture of happy, sad and interesting. This time, I have so many dates that it makes sense to order them by topic. Let’s […]
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